Meet the Grandparents

After not seeing my parents for over a year, i was seriously excited for a week of less work and more family time. It became apparent very quickly that being their second son was much less impressive than being the bearer of their first grandchild. Almost three decades of history thrown out the window, and instead, Good job on having a baby.

My friend Chad once jokingly complained to me that he had established a successful business, created and hung an entire art show, was working a second job at night, and all people wanted to congratulate him on was having a baby. He wanted to tell them, "Look, I love my baby, but honestly, ANYONE can have a baby. It's really not that complicated. In fact, it's kind of a natural process."

I cut my parents some slack after half a day. I mean, how can you fault someone for loving your baby to pieces? They were having too much fun anyway, bathing their first grandson in an ocean of Tuolumne Love.


There is so much to comment on about being around your parents as you are now a parent! For one thing- you realize that you were this difficult, fussy, grumpy, irrational, confused, ungrateful, and completely impossible to communicate with! Why do humans just assume that our lives began at 6 years old? It's easy to factually know that my parents "raised" me, but easy to not put together the fact that they, too, put in this labor of love.

Holding Soren as he transforms into an ambulance siren, feeling my body go into panic mode, and STILL loving him makes me grateful that my parents were patient with me. How can you have someone scream into your ear for extended periods of time, then honestly tell them that you love them? Parenting seems to completely override common sense sometimes.

It also makes me realize that when my mom and dad tell me they love me, they mean that they love me with THIS completely irrational love. I mean, I've only spent months with this little squirt and i would jump in front of a train for him... most days. Imagine how this would grow over 30 years!

And, selfishly-- it was also validating for me! My parents have made comments to my brothers and i for years about how having kids was so much fun, and it was the thing that they were most proud of in their lives. And then within a day of holding Soren, my mom made a comment to me: "Oh, wow, I forgot how hard this was!" I wanted to spin around with my magnifying glass and tweed coat and yell, "A-HA!!!!!!"

That part definitely was filtered out of their memory! Not that we weren't fun and weren't worth it, however; people forget to tell you how completely consuming having a baby is, especially when he was born with an underdeveloped immune system and is prone to getting sick! (Last time we took him in for a Urinary Tract Infection, by the way, the Hospital billed us $30,000. {Good luck on that health care reform, Democrats. We're behind you}.)

If nothing else, it was amazing to have two sets of helping hands for nearly one week. Lisa and i went on a series of exciting "dates," featuring extremely trendy destinations and dressing up in all the latest fashions. Well, kind of just glorified errands, really, and a drink outing or two. We felt slightly panicky getting into a car without our baby, as if we had forgotten him in Target somewhere. But to get to enjoy Lisa's company, and for her to get outside without a lovable squirmy infant attached to one of our bodies-- Priceless.

Sure, my parents took us out to Indian buffet, Ethiopian fare, and Arthur's burger madness. But we wanted to spend time at home, too; I tried my hand at some gazpacho with three varieties of tomatoes (grape, heirloom and slicing), mild peppers, and fresh basil-- all from my garden. Hooray! I also made a quick loaf of beer bread (my new favorite), a spinach salad, and some Arizona melon. Totally a hit. Nothing beats a really fresh meal from your garden, believe me. And cooking for your parents-- totally a treat.

Besides, they had to be impressed. There is a notorious story of a much, much younger version of me preparing a "meal" for my family, which included boiling a batch of vegetables in cups of vegetable oil. I assumed that vegetable oil was for vegetables, just like a rice cooker was made for rice. (By that same reasoning, i should have been perplexed that i couldn't find the Meat Oil for the rest of the dish...)

At any rate, my parents were in a state of euphoria.

+++++++

Not only did the folks at Kentucky's Richwood Presbyterian get to hear Lisa and i play a Haydn duet, they met my parents, and met Soren for the first time. They've been so generous to us and so encouraging, and it was a treat getting to finally introduce Soren to them after all these weeks of hiding him away at home on Sundays.

Sophie commandeered any attention she could.

Soren was actually a little overwhelmed to have so much affection and attention over the course of a week. Not a bad problem to have! It also makes him look like a slug from a science fiction movie in this one.

And quite strangely, donning a burp cloth makes dad looks like a Buddhist monk in this one.

It's still funny to be in a "family photo" that doesn't involve our parents....weird! Instant family!